Goodbye 2012

So it's been quite a year, eh? The last few weeks have just flown by us. It did include a lot of knitting...

And painting...

And baking...

Within the next few weeks I'll cover several DIY gift ideas and recipes, but today I wanted to share a story of beauty and danger.

So as many of you know, several people predicted some catastrophic event to happen December 21st of 2012. This is mostly thanks to the Mayan calendar ending on that day. That is until archeologist found a new Mayan calendar this past summer that goes far past that date. Either way, my darling husband wanted to celebrate his birthday (December 20th) and Yule/Winter Solstice (December 21st) by camping at a near by lake. That's right. Camping. In a tent. In the middle of December.

We packed a lot, but nothing could fully prepare us.

About a week or so before this trip, we were looking ok. The weather was hovering around 40-50 degrees. There was a little wind here or there, but nothing extreme. That is until the day before our trip. There was a large cold front that brought rain and bitter wind. That wind lasted through the next day. Thankfully, two of our friends were crazy enough to join us that night.

Key word for that night: LAYERS

Ashley & I joined our husbands a little late. We both worked that day and eventually found the camp site around 8 p.m. By that time, the wind took down one tent and was in the process of taking down another tent and a tarp that sheltered our fire. Thankfully that blaze lasted throughout the night even without the tarp. We had hoped to have a delicious dinner, s'mores for dessert, and late night of fun. But the cold reality was ramen that took forever to cook, taking turns warming in my car, and a early bedtime.

My husband keeping our dog warm

I have no idea how cold it got for us that night, but I do know the wind chill in the city was 21 degrees with wind gust at 30 + miles an hour. So with that being said, we decided that the four of us (and the dog) needed to stay in one tent.

This held all five of us!

Needless to say no one slept well that night. It was frigid and the wind often woke many of us up. I was just waiting for dawn to break. For the longest night of the year to be over. And after what felt like a lifetime, we began to see the sun's rays. We then witnessed a beauty that made the whole trip worth while.

A new dawn on Lake Barkley

The world may not of ended. Nothing different even happened that day. But there's something to be said about seeing the sunrise after such a dark evening. We were able to have an early New Year's Day and speak about our hopes and dreams for the new time ahead. But with a still frigid wind in the air, we quickly packed up and headed back to our warm homes.

So why share this story? I think it's a good example on the end of one year and looking forward to a new. That night was hideous; but sometimes we have to go through awful times to move on to a beautiful morning. 2013 is the new dawn. And I greatly look forward to what adventures lie ahead of us. Here's at least a peek of what I do know that will happen in the new year:

Projects to make our home more efficient!

Journeys to enjoy nature!

Holistic projects!

And I'm so happy to share all of these adventures with you. Thanks for sticking with me this year. 2012 was good to us. But I'm over it. I'm ready for 2013. Bring it!